1. Field
The present disclosure relates to diagnostic systems and methods for performing a plurality of different molecular assays on a plurality of samples and, particularly, molecular assays that comprise target nucleic acid amplification reactions.
2. Background
None of the references described or referred to herein are admitted to be prior art to the claimed invention.
Molecular assays are nucleic acid-based tests that are used in clinical diagnosis, screening, monitoring, industrial and environmental testing, health science research, and other applications to detect the presence or amount of an analyte of interest in a sample, such as a microbe or virus, or to detect genetic abnormalities or mutations in an organism. Molecular assays enabling quantification may permit practitioners to better calculate the extent of infection or disease and to determine the state of a disease over time. Quantitative molecular assays are also useful for monitoring the effectiveness of a therapy. A variety of known molecular assays can be employed to detect various diagnostic indicators.
Molecular assays generally include multiple steps leading to the detection or quantification of a target nucleic acid in a sample. Targeted nucleic acids often include a region that is specific to an identifiable “group” of organisms or viruses, where the group is defined by at least one shared sequence of nucleic acid that is common to all members of the group and is specific to the group in the particular sample being assayed. Examples of nucleic acid-based detection methods are disclosed by Kohne in U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,330 and Hogan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,308.
Most molecular assays include a detection step in which the sample is exposed to a detection probe or amplification primer that is designed or selected to exhibit specificity under the particular conditions of use for a nucleic acid sequence belonging to an organism or virus of interest. The detection probe or amplification primer can be labeled for detection with a reporter moiety, such as a chemiluminescent or fluorescent agent, or an intercalating dye can be used to indiscriminately detect the presence of double-stranded nucleic acids in a sample. See, e.g., Livak et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,848, Hogan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,308, Tyagi et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,517, Higuchi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,056, Wittwer et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,670, Whitcombe et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,145, and Wittwer et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,627. To render a nucleic acid available for hybridization to the detection probe or amplification primer, cells may be lysed or permeabilized by a variety of known techniques, including by chemical (e.g., detergent), mechanical (e.g., sonication), and/or thermal procedures. See, e.g., Clark et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,208.
Before or after exposing a target nucleic acid to a detection probe or amplification primer, the target nucleic acid can be immobilized on a solid support (e.g., particles or beads comprising a magnetically-responsive material) that directly or indirectly binds the target nucleic acid. A solid-phase extraction method for directly binding nucleic acids onto silica beads in the presence of a chaotropic substance is described by Boom et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,864. An example of indirect immobilization is described Weisburg et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,534,273, which discloses the use of a capture probe that binds to the target nucleic acid under a first set of sample conditions and to an oligonucleotide covalently attached to the solid support under a second set of sample conditions. If the solid support comprises a magnetically-responsive particle or bead, magnets can be used to attract the solid support to the side of a receptacle containing the solid support. Once the immobilized target nucleic acid is isolated within the receptacle, the isolated target nucleic acid can be separated from a least a portion of the fluid contents of the sample by, for example, contacting and aspirating the fluid contents of the receptacle with a robotic pipettor or other substance transfer device. See, e.g., Ammann et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,605,213. One or more wash steps with a buffered solution or water may be performed to further purify the isolated nucleic acid.
To increase the sensitivity of an assay, a target nucleic acid can be amplified by a nucleic acid amplification reaction, many of which are well known in the art. Known methods of amplification include Polymerase Chain Reaction (“PCR”) (see, e.g., Mullis et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195, 4,683,202 and 4,800,159; and Mullis et al., Methods in Enzymology 155:335-350 (1987)); Strand Displacement Amplification (“SDA”) (see, e.g., Walker, PCR Methods and Applications, 3:25-30 (1993); Walker et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 20:1691-1996 (1992); and Walker et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 89:392-396 (1991)); Ligase Chain Reaction (“LCR”) (see, e.g., Birkenmeyer in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,930 and Carrino et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,272); and transcription-based methods of amplification (Boothroyd et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,990; Kacian et al., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,399,491 and 5,480,784; Davey et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,818; Malek et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,238; and Gingeras et al. in International Publication Nos. WO 88/01302 and WO 88/10315). A review of many amplification reactions, including PCR and Transcription-Mediated Amplification (“TMA”), is provided in Lee et al., Nucleic Acid Amplification Technologies, BioTechniques Books (1997).
PCR is the oldest and most common form of amplification. Like other amplification methods, PCR amplifies one or more copies of a region of nucleic acid by several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular nucleic acid sequence. PCR has broad applications in clinical and biological research labs. The uses of this procedure are too enumerable, and well known at this time, to recite in this patent application.
PCR employs thermal cycling, which consists of repeated cycles of heating and cooling of a reaction mixture. The reaction is generally initiated with primers (short DNA fragments containing sequences complementary to the target nucleic acid region), along with enzymes and additional reaction materials. Once under way, the replicated nucleic acid can be used as an additional template in the amplification reaction, thereby leading to the exponential amplification of a target nucleic acid sequence.
Because a probe hybridizes to the targeted sequence, the strength of a signal associated with the probe is proportional to the amount of target nucleic acid sequence that is present in a sample. Accordingly, by periodically measuring, during the amplification process, a signal indicative of the presence of amplicon, the growth of amplicon over time can be detected. Based on the data collected during this “real-time” monitoring of the amplification process, the amount of the target nucleic acid that was originally in the sample can be ascertained. In one context, collecting data in “real-time” means collecting data while a reaction or other process is in progress, as opposed to collecting data at the conclusion of the reaction or process. Systems and methods for real-time detection and for processing real-time data to ascertain nucleic acid levels are disclosed by, for example. Lair et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,932,081.
To detect different nucleic acids in a single assay, distinct probes may be designed or selected to separately hybridize to the different nucleic acids, where the probes may include reporter moieties that can be differentiated from each other. See, e.g., Livak et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,848, Tyagi et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,517, Morrison in U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,862, Mayrand in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,146, and Becker et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,862. For example, different probes designed or selected to hybridize to different targets can have fluorophores that fluoresce at a predetermined wavelength when exposed to excitation light of a prescribed excitation wavelength. Assays for detecting different target nucleic acids can be performed in parallel by alternately exposing the sample material to different excitation wavelengths and detecting the level of fluorescence at the wavelength of interest corresponding to the probe for each target nucleic acid during the real-time monitoring process. Parallel processing can be performed using different signal detecting devices configured to periodically measure signal emissions during the amplification process, and with different signal detecting devices being configured to generate excitation signals of different wavelengths and to measure emission signals of different wavelengths.